Call for sacking of councillors

Environmentalists last night called for the dismissal of 22 members of a powerful Highland Council committee, claiming they had failed to encourage the provision of low-energy measures in new homes.

The Highlands and islands branch of the Green Party urged council leader Michael Foxley to sack the councillors who sit on the authority’s planning, environment and development committee. They claim the committee is missing the opportunity to tackle climate change by not implementing the council’s own “designing for sustainability” guidance published in 2006. Donnie Macleod, Green candidate for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Westminster seat, accused the committee of lacking the “political will” to insist on low-carbon houses in the Highlands.

“The council has demonstrated a total lack of political will on greening new homes built in the Highlands through the planning committee's failure to implement their own sustainable design guidance,” he said. “We cannot afford yet another year of failure, yet another year of sub-standard homes being nodded through and yet another year where local businesses miss out on substantial economic opportunities.”

But committee chairman Ian Ross yesterday rejected the claims, arguing the council had taken a lead in promoting environmentally-friendly housing.

He said: “This is well reflected in our approach to such areas as energy conservation, carbon emission reduction, waste management, support for land reform, the promotion of effective community planning and very importantly the active encouragement of eco schools.

“I do not accept the Green Party assertion and feel it reveals a significant misunderstanding over the way the planning system operates.”